GERROA Thursday 3rd November 2011

Still raining this morning, as it had done most of the night.  Decided we’d stay put today. 

TV reception had gone wonky yesterday afternoon.  Bill thinks it might be interference from a transformer in a van that pulled in over the way yesterday afternoon.  Doesn’t seem to be a problem with our aerial, as this morning he swapped back to our older aerial and it wasn’t any better.

Bill was going to do the washing, but decided against it as they were working on the doors of the laundry.

Later on it appeared the repairs were finished, so Bill did do the washing and dried it in the drier.

Late afternoon we went for a drive to Gerringong to have a look at the couple of shops we hadn’t previously perused – some nice things, but very expensive.

Went back to the van for a little while, then back to the Fisherman’s Club for our last meal before we headed home.  Bill had a lovely lemon sole and I had prawn cutlets again. Not quite as nice as last time, because the crumbed coating seemed to be a bit thicker and more gluggy.

Had another go at the pokies and this time I won $50.

GERROA Thursday 27th October

A lazy start to the day, after a reasonable night’s sleep.

Weather a mixture of sunny, overcast and rain.

We went for a walk over to the other side of the park to see if they had any information brochures, looked at the ducks and little piggy in the petting farm and had lunch at the kiosk.  Bill had a pie, I had a salad roll.  Not bad, except the roll was made with a Turkish roll and so was rather dry.  Walked back to where we had parked the car (it began raining when we started out, so we had driven down to the gate of our side of the park.) The park is quite big, and on both sides of the road.

Back to the van to get Bill’s jacket, then we went for a drive to Gerringong to have a look at the shops and the beach.

Bought Dennis the Donkey at Ollie and Me – he’s really cute.  He can add to our collection in the van – Kerry the alpaca, Mogo the Meerkat and Hoggy the pink pig.

I also had a lemon sorbet and Bill had a coffee at Scoops Ice Creamery.

Drove around a bit, looking at the scenery - quite spectacular.  Seven Mile Beach is apparently where CharlesKingsford Smith took off on a record breaking flight to New Zealand.  He used the beach as his runway.  At Black Head reserve we saw a whale quite a way out to sea, but it was definitely a whale splashing his tail in the water.  We watched it for a few minutes, then it disappeared.  Drove around to a few other lookouts, but didn’t see the whale again.

Looking around a bit further we saw the aftermath of what appeared to be a head-on accident.  If it was, someone was in big doo-doos because it happened on a great long stretch of double lines – in fact the whole place seems to be awash with double lines.  We saw both cars being taken away by a flatbed truck, and they were definitely both squished in the front.

Finally found the supermarket we were looking for and got some sauce, some tuna and some money – oh, and cigarettes for Bill.

Went back to the van where I had a lie down and Bill went yabby pumping and fishing.  Got some yabbies for bait, and caught a little bream and a toady, both of which had to go back.

Went to the Gerringong Bowling Club for dinner.  Both had a nice fisherman’s basket and some lovely herb bread.  Put a few dollars into the pokies, but didn’t win anything tonight.

Back home to the van and bed for me.  Bill watched some tele before coming to bed.

EDEN to GERROA 26th October 2011

I slept fairly well last night, except for waking every time I turned over, and my knees seemed to ache during the night.  Went back to sleep every time though.

Up early to pack up the van ready for the next leg of our journey.  Bill was up before me, and I got a rude awakening when he backed the car into the van while trying to hook up.

Had breakfast, checked my emails (they had net-path internet – so I could use the MB I had left from Portland).  We left the park at about 9:30am.

Stopped at Narooma for an early lunch – about 11:30.  Went to the Valencia café again.  I had potato rosti with smoked salmon and sour cream – very nice.  Bill had a ham and cheese focacia toastie.

Travelled through Batemans Bay, Termeil, Lake Tabourie, Burrill Lake, Ulladulla, Milton,  Yatte Yattah, Conjola, Wandandian, Tomerong, Falls Creek, Nowra, Bomaderry and Shoalhaven Heads before we arrived at Gerroa.

We had a mixture of brilliant sunshine, overcast skies and rain on the way.  Arrived at Seven Mile Beach Holiday Park at about 3:30.

We had previously booked an ensuite site, but for some reason the lady decided to put us on a different ensuite site which supposedly had more room.  She also offered us the site opposite the ensuite as well (no extra charge) in case the ensuite site was a bit squashy.  When we looked at the site it was apparent that it would be awkward to put the van and the annexe on the site – and the door would have to be facing away from the ensuite.  So we decided to set up on the site opposite which meant a walk across the road to get to the loo.  I wasn’t too impressed at over $40 per night for an ensuite site that really isn’t except that the loo is private.  But I got over it.

I went for a walk over to the beach while Bill got the van organised.

We had been given a TV coax cable so we could get Austar channels.  But we couldn’t get any digital channels and the analogue channels, including the Austar ones were pretty poor reception.  So Bill put up our old antenna and we got perfect reception on all digital channels except Channel 2, and pretty good analogue reception too, including Channel 2.

Got the van sorted out after the trip, and watched a bit of TV.  At 7 we went out for tea, not really knowing where we were going to go.  Decided to head for Gerringong.  Saw a restaurant there, but decided the meals were too expensive, and probably a bit avante garde for us.  So we settled on fish and chips back in the van.  Ordered crumbed flounder and chips.  Bill also had a fish cake and I had a potato cake (scallop in NSW).  Was quite nice although Bill said the fish had garlic in the crumbs.  I couldn’t taste it, but he took the crumbs off his fish.